Exam Anxiety

LegacyUser

Going anon on this.

So I'm a university student, and I will soon be sitting my semester 2 exams. I have always been quite a nervous/anxious person, and in my first year of college, following my Christmas exams I was told by a career guidance counsellor/counsellor from the Uni counselling unit that I suffered from exam anxiety. I got to sit my exams in semester 2 of first year and semester 1 of second year in a separate exam room and was given 20 minutes extra time per exam. I found this amazingly helpful. The separate room felt so much less formal, less people, less stressful, etc, taking an exam wasn't so intimidating. However I still become extremely anxious and worried, and it often takes me about a half-hour to get over the "your in an exam your in a an exam don't fúck up" mode of thinking, which in fact makes me so petrified of failing (or not doing as well as I know I can) that I cant think, and go blank. I also get the runs.....sometimes not in the actual exam but I can feel it coming, so I end up going to the bathroom about 2-4 times during an exam for about 5 minutes a turn (sorry I realise that's a tad tmi)....

Anywho, the exam office, following my last set of exams, is completely reformatting who gets allowed to sit their exams in the special needs centre. This left me in mid air for a long while, and a few weeks ago the uni doctor told me I suffer from social anxiety as well , the doctor referred me to a mental health worker and counselling unit again. I have been seeing the mental health worker a few weeks now, and I've had 2 counselling sessions so far, both have told me I can sit my exams in the special needs exam room, which is quite a weight taken off my shoulders. However I feel embarrassed talking about "the runs" problem to both the mental health worker/counsellor so as a result I have only mentioned it in passing. Whilst it wouldn't be the end of the world, I do feel that I need the extra time, between how long I spend in the toilet, and managing to pace myself into a more logical relaxed way of thinking than "OMG EXAM EXAM EXAM" thinking which leaves me a bit petrified and unable to actually concentrate on the exam itself. I was filling in the official form today with the counsellor and she didn't mention extra time on the form as an extra accommodation, something which I had been granted the last 2 times I have sat exams, however I feel bad asking for extra time....I don't know if I should ask the mental health worker if she would ok with requesting extra time for me/go back to the counsellor. I feel that it may be contrived as "abusing the system" to ask straight out to get extra time, truth is I hate talking about myself, or how I feel, so I haven't actually fully explained what exactly happens when I go into an exam to either the mental health worker or the counsellor fully, Id rather go off on a tangent about something less personal, to try and distract them/myself I suppose. For my 1st year semester 2 exams I was granted extra time having seen my counsellor for the 6 session course, and for semester 1 of 2nd year exams I had been granted extra time as that's what I had been given for my last set of exams, there was no need to go to counselling. I have a different counsellor this time round and we are only on session 2/6 and I feel that perhaps she doesn't me know as well or understand the situation as fully as my previous counsellor. Should I ask, should I leave it, how do I go about asking, am I making a storm in a teacup here? Apologies for the extremely long post.

Big Bag of Chips

Of course you should ask! There's no harm in asking. I know your anxiety is making this a very difficult subject to bring up, but nobody is going to think bad of you for asking. You don't have to mention "the runs" at all. You can mention an upset stomach and nauseous feeling that means you have to go out to the bathroom a number of times during the exam.

Your counsellor will be able to word it more officially.

Speak to your counsellor about it. She is there to help you, and no matter what you say to her, she's heard worse!

El_Duderino 09

Hey OP. Everyone experiences anxiety at exam time so if you have experienced more than most, you need to go about it differently. Have you considered forming an exam plan and blocking out your surroundings?

I used to be distracted by people around me and wonder what they're doing, how are they getting ANOTHER answer book? So I chose to sit at the front in the corner furthest from the door and use ear plugs. That way I would forget about everyone else and I couldn't see people going to the toilet or leaving early or calling for answer books.

Depending on the type of exam you can plan how you spend the first 10-15 minutes. If they are seen questions or if you can prepare them well beforehand, I would practice boiling the question down to bullet points as preparation for the exam. Then when you get to the exam, look at the questions, choose which ones you're going to do and spend the 5 minutes on each one writing the bullet point outlines for each question.

It served as a way to spend the first 15 mins and as a framework for the questions so you don't have to worry about whether you'll be able to remember the details of the last question in an hour's time because it's in bullet points at the back of the answer book.

txm

Hi buddy.
I think you need to realize that school exams are not measuring your intelligence. They are only measuring your level of obedience and submission.

It seems that schools do not promote free thinking, creativity and general resourcefulness.

I learned the hard way that in order to get good grades you need to kiss your teacher's bottom by anticipating what he/she likes to hear, do everything as told, repeat your teachers exact words. I always preffered to do my own thinking and arrive at different conclusions/opinions than my teacher (even if sometimes I'd be wrong), but it has costed me a lot of low grades.

Since I realized that the exam score is not measuring my brain ability (actually the opposite) I never again felt bad if I got lower grades, and as a consequence I never again suffered from exam anxiety. As I was finishing my masters degree in CS I learned that the game is just to repeat the exact same words as the teacher... Just know thar you can get the good grades when you feel like being obedient and paying the price by spending all your time doing homework and torturing your free spirit.

This is what we learn in school from day one:
1) conformity and obedience is rewarded
2) repetition is intelligence
3) truth comes from authority

NormalBob Ubiquitypants

I invigilate for exams in a university and you should say it. It is not a big deal to the exams office or to the counselling services and no one will be made aware of the issue. We are only told the start time and end time of the exams the morning of the session. No one outside of who you want will be made aware of the issue.